The golden age of television arguably stretched from the 1960s until approximately the early 2000s. And one of those great television shows which have stood the test of time is definitely the Andy Griffith Show. With a host of such memorable characters, crazy girlfriends, and erratic hijinks, this show is has something for people of all ages, and in fact, has actors of all ages, including a young Ron “Ronny” Howard.
The show was set in the 1960s, but was made to have a more nostalgic feel for the simpler, more peaceful times of the 1920s and 1930s. It shows a time in history when kids were kids, the outdoors was where most people spent their time, and when people were just generally nicer and more pleasant to each other. Taking place in the mountains of rural North Carolina, the show focused on two police officers, Andy Taylor who was played by Andy Griffith himself, along with Barney Fife, who was played by world famous comedian Don Knotts. A young Ron Howard played Andy Taylor’s son Opie.
The show lasted for a decent amount of time – eight seasons in all – and was one of the highest ever ranked shows according to the Nielsen ratings. In fact, The Andy Griffith Show never sank below the number seven spot in ratings ever. The Andy Griffith Show actually started as a spinoff, and has since created two more spin offs – Gomer Pyle USMC as well as Mayberry R.F.D.
However, not everything was as it seemed on the show, and there was a lot of infighting, secrets, and love going on behind the scenes of the set. In fact, someone’s marriage was broken over the show, and another person had a hand broken. We wanted to find out more about this world famous show, and what we ended up finding out about The Andy Griffith Show was that…
[post_page_title]It started as a spinoff[/post_page_title]
The wildly popular Andy Griffith Show was not an original series. It was actually a spinoff of another show called The Danny Thomas Show. The episode with Andy Griffith in it was specifically written to be a sort of pilot episode for the show anyway, and actually introduced all of the main characters, while still in the middle of a different show. Thankfully audiences loved the policeman from Mayberry, NC and the show was greenlit.
